"[On] 'poems that are more like poems'... There is something really important that happened for me when I began reading work that I couldn't fully understand. There was a resistance in me initially, and there was a kind of giving-in that happened that was really important for me as a poet, and it freed-up a lot of space around what I was allowed to like and desire and engage with. There is a work that poetry did around freeing up that space around language and allowing me to like some weird stuff that wasn't legible to everyone (including myself). So, that's a type of poetry that I think should exist in the world. I don't expect everyone to like it, but I do."

— Raquel Salas Rivera, in conversation with Candace Williams